Auction Domains on eBay - The Complete Guide

Ensuring Auction Success

Here are a few hints based on my own experience.

Research is Key

Some items receive bids from multiple bidders while others receive only one bid from a single bidder -- this is the norm. I suggest doing a little study on domain auctions to get the idea of what is common place. Also, I suggest that you go into the main domain name categories, and scroll down to see auctions that have attracted lots of bids (an auction's number of bids is visible on the right side of the page). Once you spot an auction with lots of bids, click on it to read the details. Study it to ascertain how the author managed to attract bids and how he or she presented the information to appeal to the bidder. Believe me, if the potential target is not pleased, they will never bid.

Develop a MiniSite for your Domain

One way to make a domain look really good is to develop it into a small site. Even if this site receives virtually no traffic, it can wow interested buyers, who might buy the domain for hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. Remember, too, that the price a domain sells for will depend on the number and type of people who visit that particular auction -- developing a small site can help you attract more buyers, and jack up your price! True - there are buyers who tend to look for domains attached to sites that already receive a fair amount of traffic, but there doesn't seem to be huge demand of this on eBay, which makes it a great place to sell practically any domain.

For example, I personally bought the domain name http://www.insiderdvd.com from godaddy.com for US $8.95, developed it by affiliating it with a free store at vstore.com. The site had very few hits, but looked well developed, and I put it up for auction at eBay. The auction ended in seven days at a cool US $103.50 -- not too shabby for my outlay of a mere US $8.95, plus the little work I put into it to make it more attractive to buyers.

Sell at the Right Time

Time is another factor that increases a domain name's value. If a domain name has potential, stick with it. The longer you hold onto a domain, the more potential it will have when it's offered for sale. If something can be built out of it, build it and then sell the domain.

What about a domain related to an upcoming event, or a year? If the value of a domain name is directly dependent upon a time frame, then think about selling it at the peak time, rather than holding onto it indefinitely. For example, if there's a new movie coming out, and you have a domain name that's related to it, selling it after a good 5 years won't bring in much. Leverage the movie's success, and market it right away. The hardest part will be deciding whether or not to sell it to the first or second bidder, or wait another day or two.

Choose the Right Type of Auction

1. Buy It Now

eBay offers BIN (Buy It Now), which allows an auction to close as soon as a bidder decides to pay an amount set by the seller. In such an auction, if the first bidder bids the exact BIN amount, it is sold right away and the auction ends.

Most .com domain sellers use BIN. I use BIN on some of my more valuable domains (depending on time), because it's often risky to sell such domains for a large price, and if someone is willing to pay a fixed amount that you've calculated will bring in a decent profit, why not sell? Selling a domain for the BIN price has a lot to do with the type and number of people who visit that particular auction: it doesn't happen often.

If a domain is sold for BIN, great! But if not, settle for the maximum bid price. Personally, I sometimes start bids at US $1, and sometimes at exactly US$49 (if I do a featured listing), so that even if there is only one bid on it, I don't lose much.

2. Private Auctions

Private Auctions hides the identity of bidders at auctions on eBay. This is good if a listing is an item of personal nature, or something that bidders don't want others to know they bought (eg. printed materials or toys of explicit nature).

But the opportunity to hide their identity gives scammers a perfect break. The person who starts the auction is the only one who knows who has bid. I've tried private auctions on a few domain names, and while it did help on occasion, the number of scams was very high. The problems I discussed above occurred on private auctions, and the winning bidders backed out or didn't contact me. So, I don't recommend private auction unless you're sell a domain that bidders would be hesitant to bid on with their identities revealed.

3. Dutch Auctions

What happens if you offer multiple items for sale? In this case, there's the option to sell Dutch. "Dutch" means a person can list more than one item in an auction of the same category and type, but the items themselves don't necessarily have to be identical. People can buy any individual item by letting the auctioneer know which one they want before bidding, so that the item can be reserved. Others would still be free to bid on any other item listed in the auction.

In order to start a Dutch auction at eBay, you have to have received at least 50 feedback comments, and have been registered with the site for more than 60 days. Feedback can be given by people you've sold items to, and/or buyers you've bought from -- and there's no requirement that the feedback has to be all positive. Negative comments can be given when something has gone wrong with the sale, and neutral feedback is given when the sale didn't go smoothly, but did in fact end. For example, a person can have 60 positive feedbacks, 10 negatives, and 1 neutral. That would give you a feedback "rating" of 50. Neutrals don't count with the rating system, but the comments are all made available to anyone to read.

For more information on auction types, read these pages on eBay.